page_title: Frazier History Museum
section_title: Notable past exhibitions
hierarchical_section_title: Frazier History Museum / Notable past exhibitions
caption_attribution_description: English: Frazier president Penny Peavler and director of marketing Andy Treinen dump a barrel of bourbon to mark the opening of "Spirits of the Bluegrass: Prohibition and Kentucky."
context_page_description: The Frazier History Museum, previously known as the Frazier Historical Arms Museum and the Frazier International History Museum, is a history museum located on Museum Row in the West Main District of downtown Louisville, Kentucky. An affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, the Frazier documents and reinterprets stories from history using artifacts, gallery talks, and live interpretations that are written and performed in costume by a staff of teaching artists.
  Founded in 2004 as a museum of historical arms and armor, the Frazier has since expanded its focus to cover regional, national, and international history. The museum is home to one of the largest collections of toy soldiers and historic miniatures on permanent public display in the world, The Stewart Collection. Subjects of other permanent exhibitions include historic arms, bourbon whiskey, and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
  In 2018, the Frazier became the official starting point of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.
context_section_description: British Royal Armouries USA, May 22, 2004 – January 19, 2015. With over 300 European artifacts borrowed from the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds dating from 1066 to the 1960s, this exhibition featured antique guns, arrows, swords, muskets, and other historical arms and armor from Flanders, France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom, as well as life-size tableaux of mannequins and horse figures depicting battle scenes from European history.
  Water Works, October 23, 2010 – May 1, 2011. This history of the Louisville Water Company tracked the city's evolution from “Graveyard of the West,” a nickname it earned in the 1800s when its sewage-contaminated wells spread cholera and typhoid, to winning “Best Tasting Tap Water in America” in 2008.
  Da Vinci: The Genius, May 14 – September 18, 2011. Featuring a glider, a helicopter, a machine gun, a model of the “ideal city,” a movie camera, a parachute, a tank, SCUBA gear, and other full-scale machines reproduced from his personal notebooks, this traveling exhibition celebrated Leonardo da Vinci.
  Samurai, May 12 – September 30, 2012. An exploration of the arts and philosophy of the military nobility of medieval and early modern Japan, this exhibition included armor, arms, artworks, religious icons, textiles, and other artifacts of Samurai culture from a period spanning 1,500 years.
  Diana: A Celebration, September 15, 2012 – January 13, 2013. This retrospective on the life and humanitarian work of Diana, Princess of Wales, featured more than 150 of her belongings, including her royal wedding gown, 28 designer dresses, jewels, rare home movies, and personal mementos.
  Spirits of the Passage: The Story of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, February 2 – June 16, 2013. Produced in partnership with the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Museum, this exhibition displayed nearly 150 artifacts salvaged from the Henrietta Marie, an English slave ship that sank off the coast of Florida in 1700.
  Mythic Creatures, May 11 – September 15, 2013. Featuring pre-historic fossils, textiles, paintings, stone carvings, wooden sculptures, and other cultural artifacts, this exhibition on cryptozoology looked at the origins of dragons, kraken, mermaids, Pegasus, phoenixes, unicorns, and other mythic creatures.
  Spirits of the Bluegrass: Prohibition and Kentucky, October 29, 2015 – January 9, 2018. Featuring two full bars and a lighted stage, this exhibition explored the unintended consequences of Prohibition by tracing the rise of the temperance movement, bootleggers, speakeasies, and flappers during the 1920s and '30s.
  The Hunger Games: The Exhibition, April 1 – September 10, 2017. This exhibition explored the dystopian film franchise The Hunger Games (in which the lead character is portrayed by Louisville native Jennifer Lawrence) with set recreations and original maps, props, and costumes, including the Girl on Fire dress, the Mockingjay pin, and Katniss's bow.
  Magnificent Mona Bismarck, March 15 – July 29, 2018. This retrospective on 1930s style icon Mona Bismarck featured garments, hats, shoes, and jewelry designed by Cristóbal Balenciaga, Elsa Schiaparelli, Emilio Pucci, Fulco di Verdura, Hubert de Givenchy, Madeleine Vionnet, and Roger Vivier.
caption: Bourbon dumped to open Spirits of the Bluegrass, October 29, 2015.
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